- Ghanshyam Kesharwani, Deputy Director
Raipur, 1 March 2024
There is no dearth of charitable people in Chhattisgarh. Anyway, the tradition of giving donations has been going on in our society since ancient times. Here there is a tradition of donating in Chherchhera festival in celebration of the new harvest. This is an example of the charity of our society. Even in our scriptures, food donation has been termed as great donation.
Chhattisgarh government is taking help of this tradition of the society to remove malnutrition among children. A unique initiative of Nyota Bhojan has been taken by adding community participation to the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Yojana. Chief Minister Shri Vishnu Dev Sai has started this scheme by inviting the children of the Ashram School in his home village Bagiya on his birthday.
Apart from the regular meals, school children in Chhattisgarh will now get nutritious and interesting food items in the meals invited by the leading and capable people of the society. ‘Invitation meals’ can be of three types – full meal (for all classes of the school), partially full meal (for a particular class of the school), additional supplementary nutritional material.
The food or material provided by the donors should be according to the food habits of that area. In case of complete meals, pulses, vegetables and rice are to be given to the children like the regular food. Ingredients like fruits, milk, sweets, biscuits, halwa, chikki, sprouted foods which are liked by children can be selected as additional supplementary nutritional ingredients. Nutritious and tasty seasonal fruits can also be selected as supplementary nutritional ingredients.
The objective of Nyota Bhojan is to develop a sense of belonging among the community, to increase the nutritional value of food and to develop a sense of equality among children of all community sections. In this scheme, any social organization other than the leading and capable people of the society can contribute complete food to the students studying in schools or can contribute food items in the form of additional supplementary nutrition. This will not be a substitute for the school meals, but will complement the meals provided to students.
Competent people of the Nyota Bhojan community will also be able to provide nutritious food items to school children on special occasions like marriage anniversaries, birthdays, national festivals etc. This will be completely optional. Donors can distribute seasonal fruits, milk, sweets, biscuits, halwa, sprouted foods etc. to school children. Donors can choose food items according to the children’s interests for the invitation meal.
In ‘Nyota Bhojan’, nutritious and tasty food can be provided in the form of additional food items or a complete meal to the children benefiting from the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana. The responsibility for running this scheme has been entrusted to the School Development Committee. This committee will identify such donors in the community who can organize ‘Nyota Bhojan’ in the school at least one day in a month in rotation. To encourage donors, they will also be honored in the school prayer meeting or annual day.
